Filmmakers, Conservationists and Scientists Unite to make I Environmental Film Festival A Roaring Success

Santo Domingo, 9/11/2011

With the presentation of the gripping  film "The Last Lions", about the magnificent wild cats' daily struggle for survival, Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) and the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) closed the First Dominican Environmental Film Festival.

A large audience attended the event, among which were representatives of various base associations, such as the Mauricio Baez Club and the Rescate y Vida Foundation of La Caleta. These groups have been following and participating in several  community activities and screenings, such the cleanup of Montesinos Beach in Santo Domingo, and the construction of a "Plastic Monster" made with plastic waste, an activity that was carried out with the students of the Centro de Excelencia República de Colombia.

The screening of the film was followed by an interesting discussion on the importance of environmental documentaries, particularly the latent need for documentaries relating to Latin American and Caribbean realities. Francene Blythe, director of the All Roads Film Festival, of the National Geographic Society; Oceanographer and documentary filmmaker David Guggenheim; Mark Terry, documentary filmmaker and director of the "Polar Explorer" film, and Roberto Llerena, Dominican-based documentary filmmaker and environmentalist, shared their experiences and confirmed the need for this type of audiovisual documents as an instrument for disseminating messages, creating awareness of the challenges and mobilizing the population.

Event director, Natasha Despotovic, stated that the  I Dominican Environmental Film Festival was a success because it was backed by an audience that was enthusiastic, curious and interested in learning. "We also saw that the public is very interested in creating projects in the field of environmental films and I think that is very positive," she added. She said that attendance to the activities that took place between the 8th and the 11th of this month was diverse and highlighted the presence of children, students, filmmakers, environmentalists, scientists, researchers and people interested in the subject. "I think we are in the process of creating an audience, of developing a national and international network here in the Dominican Republic, in a process of expanding to reach more people. Our desire is to continue increasing the opportunities for screening so that we can reach the largest possible number of interested individuals," she said.

Natasha Despotovic emphasized that the long term goals of the team who are implementing the project are to reach more schools, community centers, and universities, but that she feels satisfied with how the event has begun. She informed that the team who worked to make the I Dominican Environmental Film Festival a reality will start working today to ensure that the  film II Festival has an even greater outreach.

The I Dominican Environmental Film Festival took place in four locations, FUNGLODE, the Narciso Gonzalez Cultural Center,   Pedro Mir Auditorium at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, and the Leon Center in Santiago.

Experiences

In his presentation on the experience of making documentaries in the area of ​​the environment, documentary filmmaker David Guggenheim, noted that in recent years he has seen more collaboration and integration between the filmmakers and scientists associated with environmental issues. "As a scientist I learned that we do not need emotions, but the data to change the world. With documentaries it is possible to create awareness about the living conditions of the animal species that inhabit this planet," he added. He stressed that the Festival has helped to fuel that process in the Dominican Republic and that he was confident that in the future it may continue to hold similar events to raise awareness among citizens.

Activities

As part of the Environmental Film Festival, a number of panel discussions were conducted with leading experts and filmmakers of the screened documentaries.  Notably, Suzan Beraza and Lisa Kaas Boyle, along with Ginny Heinzen de Freites of the Center for Agricultural and Forestry Development, Jose Miguel Martinez, director of Urban Cleanliness of the National District, and plastic artist Marcelo Ferder , who discussed the problem of plastic waste after the screening of the short "Plastic Bag" the film feature "No more bags!", direced by Ms. Beraza.

Also, Chalotte Vick of Google Ocean and Deborah Kinder, Director of the Blue Ocean Film Festival, along with Idelisa Bonnelly de Calventi, President of FUNDEMAR, and Oswaldo Vasquez of Asesoría y Tecnología Marina, ATEMAR, addressed the issue of biodiversity, following  screening of the short "Fighting for Life" followed by the feature film "Wild Ocean."

Other issues about which the public showed particularly interest and concern were in education and the growing influence that video games and computers have among the youth, addressed by filmmakers Meg Merrill and Greg LeMieux, after the screening of the short "The History of Things "and the feature film "Play Again," while the issue of climate change, challenges and proposals, was presented by the director of the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism, Adolfo Lopez and Mark Terry, director of the feature film "Polar Explorer" in which scientific experiments are conducted by Mark and his team during explorations conducted in the Arctic and Antarctica.

As part of the Film Festival there was an interesting discussion between Andrew Stevenson and Dominican marine biologist Oswaldo Vasquez on an upclose look at the life of marine mammals in the Dominican Republic, after the screening of the film "Where the Whales Sing."

The audience also learned about scientific exploration, a panel by Mark Terry, after the film "The Polar Explorer", and about unsustainable agriculture in which George Langworthy and Meryam Henein participated along with local members of the beekeeping community, Cesar Rodriguez and Miguel Duarte as well as the CEDAF coordinator, Santiago Rivas, after showing the captivating film "The Disappearance of the Bees."

Among other scheduled activities, a team of students and other participants, led by Rose Lord, whose motto is "Make Gardens Not War", created a community peace garden at a city school, and arrangements were made with local students for a beach cleanup operation in Montesinos, which aimed of gather material for eco artist Amy Blount Lay''''s symbolic "Sea Trash Monster" youth workshop.

Awards

The Film Festival enjoyed the support of the country's President Leonel Fernandez, who gave to awards of excellence to seasoned environmental activists; world renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle and Dominican national Idalisa Bonnelly, founder of the Silverback Whale Sanctury. It also had the backing of Omar Ramírez, Executive vice president of the National Council for Climate Change.

Film Finale

Closing night film"The Last Lions" addresses the extinction of large animals at the top of the food chain and uses the example of the difficulties that lions in Africa must face to survive in their natural environment.

This endangered species is surrounded by a hostile environment that expresses itself through wildfires, the increasingly imminent proximity of men, the threat of hunting and scarce food resources. According to the latest data, the lion population in the world has been desimated from 450,000 to merely 20,000 over a period of 50 years, a reduction that greatly concerns environmentalists and conservationists.  

A huge applause during the film credits brought the Festival to its finale this year, and enthusiastic support raised during the event will help ensure its success next year. In that regard, Festival organizers would like to recognize and thank the support of all the many collaborators, sponsors, and volunteers who helped make this event possible.